[Linux-aus] ATO - Software Compatibility

[Brent Wallis]

On 11/17/05, David Lloyd <lloy0076 at adam.com.au> wrote:
>
>
> What does your company do? Clearly it's not development or you wouldn't
> make such bizarre statements as "I doubt it would cost the ATO much to
> provide a linux ECI client".
>
> How about:
>
> * testing time
> * regression testing time
> * project management
> * extra support (considering there's six trillion linuxes vs 3 Windows
> and 1-2 OS X)
>
> So let's drop the "It's easy part" and start to give them a reason to
> help us.


Well, lets face it. Finding a "reason" in a business climate where "user
pays" or "we need a business reason to do the work" will probably be just as
hard. An unfortunate situation that affects any "minority" in our
economy.... and never really gets resolved.

Why not step outside of the arena, move over to a neutral corner and take
another look at the problem. For me, (after taking a look... :-) ) that
raises some questions... and the start of a "different" solution:

Why on earth is there a need for a "client" to be installed on a PC to start
with in order to interact with the ATO?

Is there a compelling reason/business case as to why the ATO has taken the
role of software developer and distributor?

The business case for them continuing down the "you must install OUR
software"
or else is rather weak for such an important government organisation.....

Why on earth do they not create an online service where the only requirement
is a standards compliant web browser? The business case to support such an
argument would be downright simple.... a no brainer.... the savings on the
client dev and dist would be huge!!!... it could all be poured into the
online service..... No more business users struggling with installs......


Why not lobby for that instead?
Seems to me that the effort would benefit not just Linux users, but ALL PC
users..... now that's something they could not ignore isn't it?

BW
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.linux.org.au/pipermail/linux-aus/attachments/20051118/11cd443e/attachment-0001.htm